OAM (Operation, Administration, and Maintenance) describes the instrumentation of telecommunication networks that provide operators with the tools to remotely manage their network infrastructure. At the device level, OAM protocols generate messages that are used by operations staff to help identify problems in the network. For example, OAM allows automatic network monitoring, so that the operator receives notification of equipment outages. In the event of a fault, the information generated by OAM helps the operator troubleshoot the network to locate the fault, identify which services have been impacted and take the appropriate action.
Both the Y.1731 protocol (ITU-T Recommendation Y.1731) based OAM and IETF RFC 5880 BFD based OAM is well understood. Further previous OAM interworking efforts have outlined general principles for OAM interworking that can be applied to the interworking of Y.1731 based fault management and BFD. These are documented in a specific case of Y.1711 to ATM I.610 interworking in ITU-T Recommendation Y.1712, and in the unpublished draft ITU-T Recommendation Y.Gina (Generic interworking document).
However, the existence of significant deployments of MPLS based upon proprietary Y.1731 OAM poses the problem of rationalizing these deployments with that of IETF standardized MPLS. The present invention provides an approach to interworking the two to produce a harmonized network.